Twenties Girl

I have a confession to make, during my recent blog hiatus I didn’t just indulge in a lot of movies, I also read my very first Sophie Kinsella novel.

Sophie Kinsella aka Madeleine Wickham is basically the queen bee of chick lit. Her most famous novel The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic became Confessions of a Shopaholic in 2009, a reasonably successful romantic comedy starring Isla (Mrs. Borat) Fisher and Hugh Dancy. Besides her world famous Shopaholic series, she also has several novels that were published under her real name and a few stand alone ventures of which I read her most recent addition, Twenties Girl.

When I read it I was in the mood for some light-hearted girly entertainment which was exactly what I got. It’s not my usual fair and I’m not going to make a habit of reading her novels but I decided that I shouldn’t knock it until I tried it so I boldly went where millions of woman have gone before.

Anyway, ditzy headhunter Lara is the main character and she is being stalked by the ghost of her recently deceased great aunt Sadie who is convinced that someone stole her dragonfly necklace just before she died. To get rid of her bold, demanding and Charleston-dancing relative, Lara delves into her family history and unravels some tasty secrets and naturally meets Mr. Right along the way.

The plot was predictable but that’s the curse of chick lit, you can’t have light and fluffy without a happy ending right? It made me smile a couple of times and was able to entertain me for three whole evenings, the perfect fodder for my then gloomy state of mind. If you like your novels a little more, challenging, original or thought-provoking then walk, better yet run the other way.

Gemma Bovery

At first glance, this graphic novel completely enticed me with its alluring feminine features and literary qualities but its appeal also became its downfall in my opinion.

As the title already suggests, Posy Simmonds revamps Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary about a good girl who turns into an adulterous wife with one too many debts and in the end decides that eating some rat poison is the noble thing to do. Gemma Bovery on the other hand, is a bored and pretentious illustrator living in London who after a failed relationship with someone even more narcissistic than herself decides to marry an older divorcee named Charlie Bovery and drags him off to Normandy so she can live a quaintand rural life. Her boredom is now back with a vengeance, so she takes a lover and the rest is literature.

This story is however told after her death by the local baker who was completely obsessed with our sensual heroine. He steals her diaries and tries to find out if life really did imitate art. The result is a mixture of detailed, elegant girly drawings mixed with an abundance of dialogue in French and English, thought-bubbles, diary excerpts, letters and chunks of narrative just like a 19th century novel. Simmonds truly excels in combining classic narrative elements with Bridget Jones’ neuroses and modern day illustrations.

Posy Simmonds started writing and illustrating children’s books as well as running a series of cartoon strips in The Guardian before she decided to give her drawings a literary infusion. Gemma Bovery was just the beginning and was soon followed by Tamara Drewe, a very loose interpretation of Thomas Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd. Both were published in episodes in The Guardian before being issued in book form. The same way many 19th novelists first brought their work to the attention of readers.

Turning Madame Bovary into a contemporary graphic novel surely makes an otherwise dense and tedious story more accessible but it still isn’t a quick or easy read. It took me a week to finish 106 pages! It is a fresh and pretty (once again emphasizing the girly aspect) way of looking at this heroine and emphasizes the timeless quality of the social satire. Simmonds is also without a doubt a very talented illustrator but for some reason wasn’t able to dazzle me.

10 Minute Tales

Last Christmas, the biggest names in writing, acting and directing came together in an uplifting and highly creative series of silent short films on Sky 1. These 11 magical moments that give us a unique and engaging look at love, life, hope and redemption, star Mackenzie Crook, Bill Nighy, Peter Capaldi, Timothy Spall, Natasha McElhone and many more. Here are my favorite three:

Incendiary

After being completely enthralled by Chris Cleave’s mesmerizing novel The Other Hand, I couldn’t wait to read his debut novel Incendiary. As fate would have it, I received it as birthday gift in January and put it somewhere near the bottom of my TBR pile seeing as I’d never heard of it and wasn’t exactly longing to read it. If only I had known then what a brilliant writer Chris Cleave is.

After losing her husband and son during a fictional terrorist attack at a football game in London, an ordinary woman decides to write a letter to Osama bin Laden in order to cope with her grief. This letter which portrays her loss, guilt and descent into madness is Incendiary.

Filled with heartache, humor and humanity at its best and worst, Incendiary was a surprising and original novel with an uncanny protagonist who was committing adultery when she saw “her chaps” explode on the television. She isn’t depicted as a saint or a martyr but like he did in The Other Hand, Cleave has created a real woman (dialect and all) filled with fear, passion and insecurities which makes us readers not only sympathize but also understand her motives and thoughts. In the end there are no good guys, no bad guys, only perpetually flawed people who are trying to make sense of the world.

This unnamed young widow tries to explain the effect of this indescribable tragedy on her life and on London but what starts as an honest, brutal, beautiful and above all brave novel suddenly takes a turn for the worst. Don’t get me wrong, Incendiary is a really good book but this painful exploration of loss and paranoia soon turns into a slightly implausible (but entertaining) tale filled with an obsessive coke sniffing suitor, his back-stabbing fashionista girlfriend, a caravan loving cop, some espionage and a devastating revelation that leads to more chaos and insanity. Fortunately, I crave a daily dose of madness.

Then Incendiary's uncertain future took a turn for the worst when they came up with the brilliant idea of turning it into a movie, a harrowing fate every book eventually faces. After watching the hack job Hollywood did with The Time Traveler’s Wife, I swore never to watch an adaptation again but seeing as I have no self control, I watched it anyway.

Incendiary, the movie, was brought to the screen by Sharon Maguire and stars Michelle Williams as the grieving widow and Ewan McGregor as her lover / investigative journalist. The plot is similar to the book up to the attack but then turns into something completely different and tedious. Whereas the book was slightly twisted, the movie is simply boring and leaves out 75% of the original story and rapes the remaining 25%. Instead of getting all psycho-sexual on us, Michelle and Ewan go in search of the terrorists while grieving and ultimately getting on with their lives, which is light years away from the original ending.

Incendiary’s unusual plot finally, wasn’t the only reason it made international headlines in 2005. The day this novel was released (7 July) also happened to be the day that the London public transport system was bombed, adding to this book’s universal acclaim.

Overall, Incendiary is a bold and wonderful debut novel that is both shocking and very unexpected (literally). Just avoid the movie at all costs, unless you want to see Michelle Williams topless then by all means, enjoy.

Gustave, Ghent and gardenias

Last Sunday I went to Ghent for an article on the Gustave van de Woestyne retrospective at the MSK. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the train was packed with senior citizens who were apparently all going to the Floraliën aka the fancy flower show.

Instead of heading straight down to the museum, I decided to take a walk along the river Lys through the historical centre where I was delighted to encounter no less than 4 overcrowded but charming markets: a regular food based market, an antiques market where I bought a lovely lapis lazuli necklace, a book fair and a flower market which was oddly enough my favorite. An entire square filled with flowers, plants, trees and herbs made me giddy with green goodness and sad that I've only got a terrace to recreate my version of paradise on.

After some luscious lunch, a cookie macchiato and a walk in the park I went to the museum and stumbled across yet another market, a flea market to be precise and the tenth annual art books fair just below the steps of the MSK. Ghent truly is the place to be on a sunny Sunday.

I'll be the first to admit that I knew nothing about Gustave van de Woestyne before entering this exhibit but I left it pleasantly surprised and enlightened. He was one of the pioneers of modern Flemish art at the beginning of the 20th century due to his striking mix of Symbolism, Expressionism and Cubism. He mainly paints religious themes, portraits and some landscapes but what's interesting about his work is the way you see the same topics evolve from Classicism towards Modernism throughout the course of one man's career.

His portraits especially, seem treacherously simple but have a timeless quality due to their lack of surroundings. They also exude an almost tactile timelessness induced by their neutral colors with a dash of gold and a hint of despair. But what really got to me, were the often asymmetrical oval eyes that created an unnerving almost stalker-like presence in the room. Freaky stuff but definately worth a look.

Tired eyes

I am currently suffering from an irritating affliction that has been coming and going for several weeks now, tired eyes. I've always been a bad sleeper (no more than six usually interrupted hours a night) but it has never bothered me before yet lately I just can't seem to keep my eyes open. I've even caught myself doing little power naps while standing up, waiting for the bus.

Whereas I don't feel that tired, my eyes are being driven to their outer limits resulting in puffiness, even darker circles than I normally have and the horror of all horrors, my very first wrinkles which I am combating with as many eye creams as I can find and a freezing eye mask. Unfortunately none are doing a remotely satisfying job.

To make matters worse, I can't watch TV or read for longer than 30 minutes before I nod off. Instead of waking up refreshed and invigorated, I wake up cranky and with a splitting headache. And don't even get me started about a computer screen!

Sadly the only thing that's standing between me and premature ageing is several weeks of good nights' sleep but I don't see that happening any time soon so I'll just keep on smearing.

Remember Me

I decided when I started The Sumptuous City that I would never blog about recent film releases as they already get enough attention but for once I'm going to break that rule and talk about Remember Me.

I went to see this movie with my mother because she wanted to drool over Pierce Brosnan but he wasn’t the only piece of eye candy on display. He was accompanied by the ever scrumptious Robert Pattinson in his first post Twilight cinematic outing so I thought what the hell, right?

My expectations were minimal. The movie poster made me think it would be the average boy meets girl romantic slush fest and the fact that Robert Pattinson’s involved prepared me for a theater full of swooning teenage girls. In the end I was very right and also very wrong on both accounts.

Women of all ages gathered to watch this unexpected gem. The story is pretty simple: Rob plays Tyler, a guy who lost his way after his brother’s suicide and Emilie de Ravin plays Ally, a girl who’s coping with her mother’s death. They meet and… But this isn’t a random love story, it’s so much more. The story is very realistic and after a while you almost feel part of it. The acting is also pretty good. Pattinson still does a lot of brooding but he has evolved from his miserable stalker / vampire persona.

I really loved the characters who were all very human and likeable despite some of them being utter bastards but the screenplay was the icing on the cake. It was fresh, realistic, poignant and very moving. The quick witted dialogue flowed so naturally and was spot on. I thought Remember Me was an incredibly touching and perfectly executed low budget cinematic treat. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry and haunt you for quite some time due to the exceptional (and apparently controversial) twist at the end that had 99% of the theater including my mother in tears.

I just hope the general public gives this wonderfully thought provoking film the attention it so rightfully deserves and doesn’t just label it as teenage drivel.

Cold Souls

Last week I took a little internet hiatus. I just didn't feel like spending the usual quality time with my Vaio due to several embarrassing and girly reasons which I won't elaborate on. I did however watch a lot of movies, too many movies really and the complete 5th season of House MD.

One of these movies was Cold Souls, a Kaufman-esque dramedy starring Paul Giamatti which delves into the seedy world of soul trafficking. While rehearsing Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya, Paul can't seem to disconnect from his character anymore resulting in a typically Russian type of depression. After reading an article in the New Yorker about soul extraction, he decides to give it a go in a measly attempt to lighten the load. David Strathairn removes Paul's tiny soul in a classic scene with the immortal line: Are you telling me my soul is a chick pea? This wonderfully absurd tale then takes a sinister twist as his soul goes missing...

I really looked forward to seeing this movie but I kinda have mixed feeling about it now. Although it’s original, clever and incredibly witty at times, Sophie Barthes full length directorial debut is also very similar to Charlie Kaufman's twisted themes and Spike Jonze’s style. I personally love Kaufman’s insanity and the combination of artsy absurdity and Paul Giamatti were what made me want to watch Cold Souls but sadly, Barthes can’t quite pull it off. Cold Souls could be best described as an existential comedy meets Russian spy movie that starts off funny but ends up entering dark and uncharted territory. If only Barthes was able to make the madness last… The performances however were phenomenal, especially by the always adorable Giamatti who gets to play several twisted versions of his versatile self.

Cold Souls is a great attempt at an intellectually stimulating and visually satisfying cinematic oddity but in the end it just leaves you unfulfilled and craving the real deal.